The Chapter-A-Day thread. (3)

[FredVB]

Certainly any of us can be led to a portion of scripture, and it would be right to go to that. Psalms are really inspirational and helpful to believers still, and it seems good to have more yet posted with attention to them. It is too bad though that I know I won't manage it for posting each day. Still it could be open to others who would post for it, and it shouldn't have to be strictly each day, so that it could be resumed after a pause.

Psalms 79 extends the history of the previous psalm to its conclusion, dealing with what had to come. The people of Israel continued in rebellion, with commandments disregarded, for the sake of Yahweh's holiness and call to all who would to come to right living with needed trust in God, destruction among those in Israel had to be permitted, with a remnant of Judah and a few with them to be taken into captivity. It was enough to finish any people with their culture and values not continuing with that. But God's grace made it possible otherwise. There needed to be that remnant who would turn and call on God, as it is shown.

How long, Yahweh? Will You be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour Your wrath on nations that do not know You, and on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, for Your name's sake!

This indeed was what Yahweh God would do.

 

[agamemnonoftroy]

FredVB,

Thank you kindly for expounding to us the meaning of Psalm 79.

Yes some of the most beautiful Bible quotations come from the Psalms.

I have read all your comments and agree with you 100% on all the issues that you covered in your post.

 

[FredVB]

I have read all your comments and agree with you 100% on all the issues that you covered in your post.

Thanks.

Psalms 80 also is a view after the destruction is permitted. Strikingly, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh are each mentioned in the call for salvation, meaning some people from the other tribes were still around for that. The call is to the Shepherd of Israel, the Vinedresser.

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth! Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Your strength, and come and save us!

Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts, look down from Heaven and see, and visit this vine and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, and the branch that You made strong for Yourself.

Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call upon Your name.

Restore us, O Yahweh God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!

Thus calling on God is what was needed, and Yahweh God answers that.

 

[agamemnonoftroy]

FredVB thank your for your comments on Psalm 80.

I read all your comments very carefully.

 

[FredVB]

Psalms 81 starts off with praise of Yahweh God with available instruments. There are some churches who will not use instruments in church for praise of God, because it wasn't mentioned in the new testament of the Bible. But we can clearly see that God does not have a problem with it.

God's deliverance of his people is recounted, and God again reminds:

There shall be no foreign god among you, nor shall you worship any foreign god. I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries. The haters of Yahweh would pretend submission to him, but their fate would endure forever.

Abundant promise is given to them for being faithful with caring to do as they are told by God, but they had yet to do that, except for the few. There is call in that for any of us, to take seriously what God tells us, to do so. With this, we will find abundance in purpose to gladly give our praise to God.

 

[agamemnonoftroy]

FredVB,

Yes there are many mentions of praising God with instruments in the Old Testament, while some Christians now disapprove of the use of musical instruments.

 

[FredVB]

Psalms 82 shows that Yahweh God is sovereign, as judge. No others withstand God when God judges.

It is shown that no injustice will stand, God makes sure all that is seen is dealt with. It is suggested to some that there are more gods than Yahweh God alone, but this says that God is not putting up with any that are regarded as god, there isn't justice with that.

I did not intend to take over for submitting for chapters myself, but was submiting to help this keep going. I recommend this for others, and we can each help with it a little, anyway until one wants to submit for every day.

 

[agamemnonoftroy]

FredVB,
Thank you for giving us your thoughts on Psalm 82.
The thing that made God angry was when the Jews worshipped other Gods such as Baal for example.

 

[FredVB]

Yes, indeed we have no basis and are not right to have any of other gods for us, and should not put any other of things or any being in place of God. God rightly will not just leave place for another god any might choose and tolerate that.

Psalms 83 is also a plea for there to be deliverance, in the threatening presence of enemies, from God. There is recall of past enemies, who were named with their account in the Book of the Judges, and that they were subdued with God's involvement.

Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Yahweh. That they may know that You, whose name alone is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth.

The fact is Yahweh God is the Most High for all the universe and all creation. This may be known with seeking who is God. Being brought to shame is the thorough coming to humility. In humbleness one may see what they are given opportunity to and so come to repentance. This can have such a one respond to God and seek God further. It is the goodness of God that can lead to repentance, God is not deliberately wanting them to perish, but that this way they come to the redemption God makes available, and this is in fact through Jesus Christ.

 

[agamemnonoftroy]

FredVB thank you for your thoughts on Psalm 83.
In the Old Testament God hated those who worshipped Baal.
In 2015 the problem is more that people dont worship anyone at all.
Its my opinion that we must all worship something.
Maybe we now worship money, houses and possessions.

 

[FredVB]

We all of humanity are so very inclined to worship or idolize someone or something over anything else in our lives. This is good and right only with it being Yahweh God, but generally it is easily other than God, and this is horribly a great problem. God gives us cautions and warnings.

Psalms 84 is evidently originally composed for pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.

How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Yahweh of hosts! My soul longs, yes even faints for the courts of Yahweh, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

The least one might possibly come to having in eternity with being of the redeemed reconciled with Yahweh God our Maker is far better than the very best one would have in eternity otherwise, including with what one has now.

 

[agamemnonoftroy]

FredVB,

Thank you for your thoughts on Psalm 84

The least one might possibly come to having in eternity with being of the redeemed reconciled with Yahweh God our Maker is far better than the very best one would have in eternity otherwise, including with what one has now.

 

[FredVB]

Psalms 85 is recognizing the favoring grace of Yahweh God, while there is a plea of restoration after the catastrophe that was permitted, and with seeing there is redemption provided.

I will hear what God Yahweh will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

 

[brinny]

Psalms 85 is recognizing the favoring grace of Yahweh God, while there is a plea of restoration after the catastrophe that was permitted, and with seeing there is redemption provided.

I will hear what God Yahweh will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

Yes, it's a beautifully reconciling Psalm, about God's inexplicable grace and extraordinary favor. Amen.

 

[brinny]

Psalm 86 is rather precious in that the psalmist KNOWS that God WILL hear him and answer him and help him.

This verse sorta' stuck out for me, because i am learning what the "fear of the Lord" means...it's a precious verse:

Verse 11: "Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name."

 

[brinny]

Psalm 87

A very short Psalm, only 7 verses. Zion, the city of God is mentioned, and that God loves her gates more than all the dwellings of Jacob. I'm assuming this is in a very spiritual sense, and that the city of Zion has a deep spiritual meaning and special preciousness to God, and if it does, perhaps i should give heed to the fact that He does and attempt to understand why He does, and in the meantime embrace what our heavenly Father embraces.

I found this Psalm a bit difficult to understand, but what this indicates to me, is that one of these might be necessary, and i just needs to delve/dig into it even more:

 

[brinny]

Psalm 88

This entire psalm could be Job's lamentations......the descriptions are so strikingly similar. He cries out to God, from the deepest and darkest pit. It seems to him that he will die and perhaps this will be his last breath. Yet he continues to cry out to God, as we are also to do when all is darkness around us and we have no understanding of why we are suffering and there seems no end to it. We are admonished to be persistent, and indeed this psalmist demonstrates persistence.

He is right. Who ELSE we gonna call out to when nothing makes sense and ALL appears hopeless and without an end in sight.

This perhaps is what is meant by a wilderness experience or in a dry and thirsty land, when all we have is tears:

 

[brinny]

Psalm 89

I was wondering what verse 10 means:

"Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm."

So i read the referenced Bible verses: Psalm chap 87:4; Isaiah chap 30:7; Psalm chap 51:9

"Rahab" is referring to "Egypt", not Rahab, the woman who helped Israel and who God consequently deemed righteous. This verse is referring to God's enemies, those that hate and despise Him.

This is a looooong Psalm with many references to David, the one for whose sake God does much for and through whom God brings a Savior forth.

Interestingly, "Amen" is stated twice at the end of this psalm, for emphasis:

verse 52: "Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen."

Amen.

 

[brinny]

Psalm 90

In my Bible it describes Psalm 90 as a prayer of Moses, the man of God. This is a profound chapter, in that Moses reveals knowledge in it only a man of God would know, and a man who had been taught by God Himself. Phenomenal! Reminds me of how God's glory was reflected all over Moses' face so that it shone, and he had to cover it so as not to distract or alarm the Israel people when he descended from the mountain.

Just as a side note it is written in Isaiah several places that those with a heart for God will shine like the noon day sun and their light will rise from obscurity. It is also written that God spoke to Moses face-to-face. That's quite profound.

So here we have a phenomenal chapter, where Moses speaks of God being as in "God IS":

verse 2: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."

(Proverbs chap 8, 25th and 26th verses are referenced)

Here in verse 4 it is written that God is not constrained by "time" (which ties right into verse 2, where it is written that "Thou ART God" as in "God IS".)

"For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

In verse 12 there is much wisdom, for it reminds us that we are but dust, and that our days come to an end eventually (and thusly that our only HOPE is in our God, the living God, Who is the God of the living, for death cannot remain in His presence. He is the God of the "living", and if we "abide" IN Him, we have life, and life everlasting.)

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

(He IS surely our "Hiding Place" and HAS always been our "Dwelling Place", and He is our HOPE and our LIFE, for we are "ALIVE" in Him, Halleluia!!!!)

Amen.

 

[brinny]

In thinking about Psalm 90, this came to mind:

To our Father, we will sing, and as we sing TO Him, He sings "with" us, and over us with rejoicing. How precious is THAT?

"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." ~Zephaniah, 3rd chapter, verse 17